Great news! Pinterest is now testing search ads with keywords and shopping tools.

97% of Pinterest searches are not brand specific, so a lot of the keywords will have to be intuitive -- just like a Google search. This means that you can supply content to your customers based on their searches on Pinterest and not just Google.

On this week's Hard Facts, Samantha gives you creative pointers and other marketing tips to be aware of as this new technology rolls out to all businesses.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

Want some insight for marketing to the so-called "latchkey generation?" Looking for YouTube user demographics? Check out the latest research on Gen X engagement trends on YouTube.
Written by
Netta Gross , Brianne Janacek Reeber
Published
January 2017
Topics
Video Consumer Trends Search
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Put Google research and insight behind your thinking SUBSCRIBE Generation X, born between the mid-1960s and late '70s, bore witness to the technology revolution. Its members are old enough to remember a time before the internet, but young enough to have adapted quickly to the changing technological landscape. The incentive for brands to engage this generation on YouTube is, in a word, massive. According to Pixability, Gen Xers account for over 1.5B views every day on YouTube.1 To better understand Gen Xers' priorities relative to their YouTube engagement, Google conducted qualitative and survey-based research in partnership with Ipsos Connect and Flamingo.2 The findings? Gen Xers' behavior on YouTube reflects broadly held assumptions about the generation: their ability to self-start, their love for nostalgia, and their desire to be in the know, just to name a few traits. Below, check out the stats behind the YouTube behavior of Gen Xers, and get color commentary on each trend from someone who knows a thing or two about this cohort—Justine Bloome, head of strategy and innovation at media agency Carat. Justine works every day with brands like The Home Depot, MasterCard, General Motors, Disney, Mondelez, and P&G to connect with Gen X audiences. 1) Embracing nostalgia

YouTube is certainly good for a look back. It's almost a time capsule in that way. Remember that jingle you knew every word to as a kid? It's probably on YouTube. Remember that jaw-dropping scene from your favorite crime drama? It's probably on YouTube.

Justine's take on Gen X using YouTube for nostalgia: "I don't think that Gen Xers are any more nostalgic than previous generations. However, their ability to tangibly access their nostalgia—and our ability to observe that behavior through data—has changed. For example, with a number of entertainment and celebrity icons from the '80s and '90s passing on in 2016, I am sure YouTube saw huge spikes in Gen X searches for Prince, David Bowie, George Michael, and others. Part of me also wonders if this is how Gen Xers share these memories with their children—allowing them to experience it firsthand, rather than just hear their parents recount the story." 2) Staying in the know

YouTube is Gen Xers' way to keep a pulse on current events.

Justine's take on Gen X using YouTube to stay in the know: "Gen X grew up with US Weekly and witnessed the dawn of reality TV. Remember 'The Real World' on MTV? 'Survivor?' Gen X had front-row seats to the rapid rise of reality TV and celebrity culture. Gen X also adapted quickly to many groundbreaking technological innovations that sped up access to news, entertainment, and personal connections—think VCRs, CDs, digital portable music players, and mobile phones. And they were early adopters of social media at scale. Staying relevant and not feeling left out is important to their identity, so it makes sense that they turn to YouTube to keep a pulse on current events." 3) DIY on their own terms

For Gen Xers, it's important that they're able to take this how-to content at their own pace. To that end, they report making good use of the pause and replay buttons as they master a new skill.

Justine's take on Gen X using YouTube for DIY on their own terms: "Gen Xers were first known as the 'latchkey generation.' Many grew up in households where both parents worked, so they found themselves home alone more so than previous generations. They took a lot of responsibility for themselves and their siblings, and subsequently developed a sense of independence and willingness to self-start. Gen Xers are now at a place in their lives where they have the means and time to invest in their surroundings, their personal appearance, as well as their health and well-being. Comparatively, Gen Xers are less likely than Millennials to ask others for their opinions, so I am not surprised that Gen Xers use YouTube to figure something out on their own." What this means for brands So why does all of this matter to brand marketers? Because 75% of Gen Xers watch YouTube at least monthly on any device.3 And 64% of Gen Xers bought a product or service they saw in a video on YouTube when they were learning how to do something.4 All of that watching presents a significant opportunity to influence. Sources
1 Pixability Software. All-time data up to Nov. 2016.
2 Google/Ipsos Connect, U.S., YouTube Human Stories: Gen X, n=1,004 among respondents age 35–54 who go online at least monthly, Sept. 2016. Google/Flamingo ethnographic research among 15 respondents age 35–54, Sept. 2016.
3,4 Google/Ipsos Connect, U.S., YouTube Human Stories: Gen X, n=1,004 respondents age 35–54 who go online at least monthly, Sept. 2016.

Dealer Video Production Is The Best Agency For Car Dealerships - 2017 Demo Reel

Dealer Video Production has a state-of-the-art video production studio in house, manned by a team of seasoned video production specialists, filmmakers, editors, sound engineers, animators, and designers that can help you bring your vision to reality. We specialize in full-service productions, taking your vision from the storyboard stage all the way through to post production and optimization of the videos for web and television.

If you’re looking to buy or sell a business, this episode is for you! Whether you’re selling a product or a service, your website is one of the most critical things that affects the success of your company.

On this week’s Think Tank Tuesday, Paul gives you very important facts that you should take into consideration when buying or selling a business. Your website is only one of them! Watch this episode for more information.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

Have you heard of message extensions? With Google's new technology, you can send and receive texts from customers right through search ads. The phone’s SMS application launches automatically, and you are able to communicate one-on-one with the customer at hand.

From answering questions to helping them schedule appointments, you’re building a relationship with your customers through these new ad formats.

Pretty cool, huh?

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

In this week's Episode of Make Money Mondays Special Edition, Chris Herman, President at Herman Advertising talks about setting your dealership up for long term success. The biggest mistake dealerships make is jumping from one solution to the next without seeing the first solution all the way through. Without a good plan you will not be successful and you will not make money. Chris tells us to lay a plan in place and stick with for the long haul.

The 2017 Honda CR-V has a new modular chassis, with more cargo room and rear legroom.

In the age of relentless spy shots, leaked patent filings and drawn-out teaser campaigns, automakers are generally terrible at keeping an upcoming debut to themselves.

So why was Honda so quiet ahead of last week's debut of the fifth-generation CR-V crossover?

It certainly had plenty to crow about with the redesigned model: the addition of a turbocharged engine, a new chassis, advanced safety features and a crisp new design.

But Honda didn't want to miss a beat. Given the popularity of the outgoing model, the outsize importance of the CR-V's segment, and a brisk schedule of debuts over the next several months, Honda had little patience for a long wind-up before the 2017 model begins arriving in dealerships a few weeks from now.

"This is how Honda likes to make debuts," Dave Sullivan, AutoPacific analyst, told Automotive News. "It's without much fanfare. No extravagant displays or pyrotechnics. Honda is letting the product do the talking. It's not the most exciting product, but CR-V is outselling the Accord, and that goes to show just how important of a vehicle this is for Honda."

That importance is only growing, as consumers increasingly give up on sedans in favor of crossovers, a trend that's expected to continue even if gasoline prices begin to rise again.

The trend has been especially good for the CR-V, which has racked up close to 4 million sales since its introduction in 1997 and leads the crowded compact-crossover segment amid stiff competition from Toyota, Nissan, Ford, Chevrolet and Subaru.

Knobs return for radio volume, as well as buttons for fan speed.

Although it was last redesigned for the 2012 model year and refreshed in 2014, the outgoing CR-V is still going strong, ranking as Honda's No. 2 seller through September, with 263,943 sales, up 1.5 percent from a year earlier.

With little appetite for incentive spending or fleet sales, Honda didn't want to put that volume at risk by telegraphing the redesigned model months ahead of time. The compressed timeline of the 2017 CR-V launch gave Honda and its dealers ample time to keep selling the older CR-V without throwing cash on the hood. September sales were up 6.5 percent, following a 5 percent rise in August.

Dealers will be able to switch over to the 2017 model quickly, without any downtime between the two iterations. To keep supplies steady, Honda will start building CR-Vs at the Greensburg, Ind., plant where it builds Civics, in addition to its factories in East Liberty, Ohio, and Alliston, Ontario.

"I think it's a very deliberate move -- and probably a very smart move -- on the part of Honda to maybe reduce pressure on incentive support," Bob Navarre, former chairman of Honda's dealer advisory board and owner of Valley Honda in suburban Chicago, told Automotive News. "It's such a high-volume vehicle now that I think if you took some percentage of market and put it on hold earlier than you need to, it might have been a more costly transition."

Honda has long held a tighter rein on fleet sales and incentive spending than other automakers. "Keeping incentives low in a record market means you're keeping more money to the bottom line but also you're not distressing the vehicles," John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda, told Automotive News, commending General Motors for adopting a similar approach. "I think it's a good indication also that customers are buying the product for what it is."

Honda's hurry-up offense continues. The Paris auto show marked the debut of the Civic Type R Concept, which will be followed by the Civic Si debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, the next-generation Odyssey minivan debut early next year and a redesigned Accord later in the year.

Honda has gotten out of the oddball business such as the Element, Crosstour, and ZDX to focus on their core model lineup, and it is paying off handsomely," Sullivan said. "I don't think any other manufacturer out there is looking at Honda right now and not feeling a bit of envy."

This industry will go extinct in 10 years. Can you guess which industry I'm talking about?

Students right now are so excited to graduate and get involved in this field, but they’re having trouble getting a job. Why? The jobs in this industry are few and far between.

It’s such an exciting and fast-paced environment for millennials to join into. It’s something that we’re actually excited about. It’s given us the opportunity to grow and flourish in our industry and it will continue to do so. The key to this industry’s success is user-generated content.

But what is it?

Watch this week’s Think Tank Tuesday to find out.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

Brian Benstock gets frustrated when people point out supposed differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic car buyers.

“We are consumers like everyone else, we buy what everyone else likes; features that make our lives better,” says the general manager and vice president of Paragon Honda and Paragon Acura in Woodside, NY, outside of New York City.

“Why would you think we’re different from somebody else?” asks Benstock, son of a Puerto Rican mother.

Clay Cooley, the dealer principal for the 10-store Texas-based Clay Cooley Auto Group, agrees. “I have not found anything different about Hispanic consumers, other than most speak English today whereas that wasn’t so 10 years ago.”

Because purchasing a vehicle is a big-ticket item, many Hispanics prefer to conduct the transaction in Spanish, so for Cooley it is a business imperative to invite and welcome this consumer in Spanish.

His dealership has been marketing to Hispanic consumers in Spanish for the last 16 years. Today, 45% of his business is from Hispanic buyers.

“We mirror our English and Spanish TV ads so when viewers see these messages on English-language TV, they see the same on Spanish TV,” he says. “This is an important trust-building step because Hispanic viewers know they are getting the same deal and treatment as everyone else.”

In the F&I office, Hispanic buyers, like other consumers, buy what they value. That includes extended-service agreements, GAP insurance, prepaid maintenance and both finance and lease options.

Many dealers don’t realize the nationwide extent of Hispanic consumers, Benstock says. “The Hispanic community is everywhere, not just in Florida and Texas.” In his market, Hispanics make up 27% of the population.

In Miami, Hispanics represent more than 50% of the population. In Houston it’s 40%, Dallas; 34%.

Currently, 57 million Hispanics reside in the U.S., 18% of the population. That’s expected significantly increase in coming years.

Car down payments average $4,833 for Hispanics vs. $4,779 for non-Hispanics, Hasson says.

She says the average MSRP of a vehicle purchased by a Hispanic is $29,600 compared with $31,900 for the overall population

On average, Hispanics lease about 30% of the time and buy a vehicle every 3.4 years.

“It goes without saying, dealers who wish to appeal to this market will staff people who are bilingual – and will make them welcome and treat them no differently than they do any other buyer,” Cooley says. “Hispanic customers are very loyal to dealerships that respect them.”

Hispanic Heritage Month sets aside time to underline the important contributions the Hispanic community has made to the U.S. From an automotive perspective, it’s worth noting that their contribution goes beyond cultural — it’s also economic. In 2015, Hispanics alone accounted for 35 percent of new vehicle sales growth, and it was the biggest sales year to date.

The U.S. Hispanic population has a significant economic influence — 1.38 trillion dollars to be exact. But their economic influence doesn’t stop there. The current Hispanic population rests at about 17 percent of the total U.S. population, but it’s projected to reach 31 percent by 2060. As the population grows, their economic impact, and their impact on the automotive market, will continue to grow as well.

Needless to say, Hispanic shoppers should be a priority for dealers. Luxury dealers specifically need to hone in on this demographic. A quarter of Hispanic vehicle intenders have a luxury vehicle in their consideration set. Since 2000, there has been a 188 percent growth in Hispanic households earning $75,000 or more. With the increased opportunity to spend, Hispanics are increasingly buying luxury vehicles – luxury vehicle purchases have risen 16 percent from 2013 to 2015, compared to 5 percent for non-Hispanics.

The Hispanic population is also unique in that the median age is 30, a full decade younger than the national age average. This means that a majority of them are also Millennials, another group with significant buying power. As a result, many of the observations about Millennials’ buying habits also apply to Hispanics. Most noticeably, the importance of a strong digital presence is key to connecting with potential customers. Hispanic Millennials are also more likely to be married, have a child and have purchased their first home, putting them in a perfect position to move on to their next significant life event — buying a car.

How mobile has changed the way we search, based on 10+ years of eye-tracking studies

How has the rise of mobile changed the way people view Google SERPs? Contributor Kristi Kellogg summarizes a session from SMX East in which Mediative's Chris Pinkerton discusses the results of eye-tracking studies.

Chris Pinkerton, the vice president of business development at Mediative, has been tracking the ways viewers look at the Google search engine results page (SERP) since 2003. In that time, Mediative’s eye-tracking studies have revealed major shifts in the way users consume the SERP.

At SMX East 2016, he explored the ways the proliferation of mobile devices have deeply impacted user search behavior on both mobile and desktop searches.

Pinkerton asserts that search activity, psychologically speaking, is mindless activity. It’s mindless because of the habits that form with the devices we use.

Chris Pinkerton

Habits are a very powerful thing to start to understand. Developing a habit of consuming information on a desktop in a certain way changes the way you consume content.

Looking back at 2003, Google became the dominant search engine because it drove people to find information faster than its competitors. That created habitual behavior — people found content the fastest on Google and kept coming back.

(As an aside, Bing has implemented programs to pay people for their search behavior in an attempt to break these deeply ingrained habits and introduce a new behavior.)

In 2005, there was a Golden Triangle pattern when it came to eyeballs on the Google SERP. But in 2016, this pattern is vastly different (see below), due in large part to mobile. It’s changed the way people consume the SERP and the speed at which they consume it. Users spot-scan and find what is contextually relevant for them.

Mobile devices have habitually conditioned searchers to scan vertically more than horizontally. This has translated to desktop search as well. People are viewing more search listings during a single session but are spending less time viewing each one.

Users are looking the front end of search listings, so make sure your main message comes first. While it used to take a user 2.6 seconds to consume a SERP, that time has been cut in half, to 1.3 seconds, Pinkerton said.

Regardless of mobile’s impact, the No. 1 organic listing captures the most click activity, regardless of what new elements are presented. However, it takes 87 percent longer for the No. 1 organic listing to be first seen on a mobile device vs. desktop, he said.

Statistics that will impact your digital marketing strategy

Knowledge Graph

With a Knowledge Graph panel on the SERP, almost 22 percent fewer clicks went to the top No. 1 organic listing.

The current expansion, which was announced in August and started in mid-September, will surface AMPs throughout standard mobile search results, aka “blue links.” When the phased blue links rollout is complete, Google will always present the validated AMP version of a page to mobile users instead of the standard web link.

At this stage, Google is only surfacing a portion of available AMPs; a September 25 query returned a mixture of AMP and non-AMP results in the blue links area. When the expansion is complete, all available AMPs will be displayed.

AMP blue links

Along with the blue links rollout, Google made slight modifications to its AMP viewer. The user interface is now grey instead of blue and employs an “X” button instead of a back arrow to close the viewer and return to search results.

Redesigned AMP viewer

Broader, deeper AMP exposure

For news publishers, the blue links expansion will surface evergreen and long-tail content that wouldn’t have been eligible for the Top Stories area but accounts for a large portion of search traffic.

It also opens AMP exposure to commercial, vertical and non-news publishers. Essentially, any AMP-enabled content that would normally surface in search will be presented to users.

A diverse group of non-news publishers timed their own announcements to Google’s blue links rollout. On September 20, eBay announced that its AMP-enabled product pages were live after a few months of development work to resolve some feature gaps.

On the same day, Shopify announced plans to AMP-enable its merchants and Reddit announced the launch of tens of millions of AMP pages on its platform. These companies join Fandango, Food Network and other non-news publishers on AMP. There’s plenty of content to fill the fire hose.

Non-news AMPs: eBay product page and Food Network recipe.

AMP benefits in Google search

Google has statedrepeatedly that AMP is not a ranking factor (at least not yet), but that doesn’t mean AMP content won’t get special treatment.

Most noticeably, Google has been building user experiences to showcase AMPs above standard search results. The “Top Stories” carousel was the first example — and now Google is working on a “Live Coverage” AMP carousel for breaking news, elections, sports and other real-time events.

These modules dominate the top of the mobile viewport, above standard results where non-AMP links appear. It’s easy to imagine a variety of special AMP-based user experiences for all types of informational and commercial content.

Finally, users could begin to reward AMP publishers by favoring AMPs in search results. If users begin to recognize the AMP icon and associate it with a fast page, they may start choosing AMP links (or avoiding non-AMP links) in search results for certain types of content and queries.

Combined, all of these factors could provide advantages to AMP-enabled publishers over non-AMPed publishers, even if the ranking algorithm for general Google search results doesn’t explicitly favor AMP.

AMP beyond Google

Apart from Google’s use of AMP, new participants are bringing the broader potential of the open-source AMP Project into view.

The eBay and Reddit announcements cited speed and performance as primary reasons for adopting AMP — and opened the door to future AMP-only strategies.

AMP pages look great and load fast on desktop just like they do on mobile.Maintaining good performance to pages as they change often amounts to a time consuming game of Whac[k]-A-Mole but we can be confident our AMP pages will always be fast. So,for many kinds of pages, we think the AMP version is the only version we’ll ever need.

Although both of them [AMP and non-AMP browse pages] are highly optimized, look the same, and share most of the code, updating both versions is still a maintenance overhead. In addition, we always need to watch out for feature parity.In the future, based on how AMP pages are performing, we may choose to have one mobile version (AMP) and serve it to all platforms.

The expansion of AMP to desktop experiences and the potential for AMP to replace standard web pages have been anticipated by the AMP Project from the start — but these are among the first large publishers to talk publicly about it.

A few days later, Bing announced AMP support in its search app for iOS and Android in order to provide a better, more consistent user experience. Like Google, Bing will link to the AMP version of a page when available.

AMP results in Bing Search app

This is something any search engine, social platform or other referrer could do — every standard web page with an AMP counterpart has a header tag pointing to the AMP version. Social news aggregator Nuzzel has been linking to AMPs for some time, and Twitter has taken initial steps to link to AMP in certain contexts.

Google’s promotion of AMP across its products is generating awareness, providing incentives for publisher adoption and driving feature development and innovation.

At the same time, the involvement of diverse participants and non-Google-dependent use cases will be critical to AMP’s long-term success and its mission to improve performance across the mobile web — not just a corner of it. The AMP format was seeded in Google’s environment but was never meant to stay there.

Watch out! Your blog site can be hurting your business. This week on Think Tank Tuesday, Paul tells a story about why he started his blog and what changes he made to improve it over time. Watch more to learn which strategies will help your blog become more successful.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

Mobile-geddon is upon us! As consumers, we're always shopping for the next best thing on our mobile devices. Our Digital Performance Manager, Brad, takes over for Paul on this week's Think Tank Tuesday. He uses his iPhone for the majority of his online purchases.

There 5 steps you need to take to make sure your website and advertisement work correctly on mobile devices to make it more attractive to consumers. Watch this week's episode for more info!

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

LinkedIn is making moves to be one of the largest social media platforms for professionals. The shift is growing toward more members who are looking for freelance work and members who are growing into entrepreneurship.

LinkedIn has capitalized on this with Profinder. But how does this relate to you as a business or a job seeker? Watch this week's Hard Facts with Samantha for more information on how this will help you find the right career fit.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

In this week's Think Tank Tuesday, I reveal that with sending a simple ringless voicemail drop, you can start the conversation with potential customers that may not have answered an email or other advertisement. Grab more leads and build your business by utilizing this low cost, lead generating strategy.

We'd love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.

You can’t Bing like you Google. What we mean is: Bing is rolling out some new features that may optimize your strategy differently than Google does. From URL’s to shared tracking templates to custom parameters, Bing is making sure everyone can easily update their account in order to improve their campaigns.

Watch this week’s Hard Facts with Samantha to learn how to upgrade your Bing account.

We’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment below and follow us on Facebook.